


Of Contracts and Honor

by Quiet_Shadow



Series: To Unite the Schools [4]
Category: Ranma 1/2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, Gen, Locked Curse, Ranma-chan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-25 22:26:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13222485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quiet_Shadow/pseuds/Quiet_Shadow
Summary: So, Genma has a plan to save the marriage contract between the Saotome and Tendo families despite the, ah, problem with Ranma not being a boy anymore. The hardest part is to convince Nodoka to go along with the plan -- without having to commit seppuku in the meanwhile. Thankfully, he's good at convincing people. Right?





	Of Contracts and Honor

**Author's Note:**

> So, I've decided to try and give this universe another try and post the next 'chapter' in the series, hoping it will not be too badly received.

In the beginning, there was only one picture, that of a family of three. The strong looking husband, one hand on the shoulder of his dark red-haired wife, who was gently holding a baby against her breast, the little one looking toward the camera with half-closed eyes. It was, Nodoka Saotome thought dispassionately, the one and only picture that showed them all three together and for a long time, it had been her sole photography of her beloved son. Her husband, as much as he gave her news on the progress of their training trip -- which she received every few months, though she had never been able to convey a message back -- had never taken the time to send her any picture of their son.

She had wondered for long if he ever had taken any.

The answer was, as she had just found out, he did, though why he never joined them to his rare postcards and letters went unanswered.

Not that it mattered for now. As it was, Nodoka was too busy staring at the handful of proofs her son, her Ranma, had grew up to be a man among men, just as Genma had swore he would.

Ranma had been such a cute baby back then… but every mother could and would swear their own child was the cutest thing ever, Nodoka thought briefly. However, what she had under her eyes filled her with deep satisfaction as she took in the aging process. The boy on the pictures kept growing up, from an adorable looking toddler to a cute little kid, to a smiling pre-teen to a rather handsome looking teenager, with long black hairs pulled in a ponytail. He was lithe but full of muscles, so strong looking, so… manly.

Though her face was blank, she felt like crying and weeping. Oh, what woes had befallen her manly son!

“My Ranma,” she whimpered before looking at the stoic face of her husband, who was sitting across her, silent and waiting for her judgement.

“As you see, Nodoka, Ranma grew up into quite the young man, as I had promised you,” he started to say, pushing back his glasses in a quick movement. “Truly, he…”

“Don’t say another word, Husband,” Nodoka stopped him, her eyes narrowing. “Yes, from pictures it seems my son grew up as a manly man, as you promised me you’d raise him. But then you show me… this,” she said, pointing out another series of pictures she had put to the side with trembling fingers earlier on.

The person on it wasn’t her manly son -- it certainly wasn’t the black-haired, manly looking teenage boy she had been busy staring at until his face was forever printed in her memories. No. The photos all showed another person entirely. Teenage-aged too, of course, but feminine. And that was where Nodoka felt hurt, and confused, and wanted to weep the most.

Red-hairs instead of black. A pigtail instead of a ponytail. A petite figure that was obviously quick on her feet, that much she could guess as an martial art practitioner, with a very developed buxom for a girl her age instead of the ripe muscles of a boy. Honestly, that young person could have been just anyone. However, when she put that one photograph near the Saotome family portrait, there was one distinctive feature about the redhead girl Nodoka couldn’t deny.

That girl looked exactly like a younger version of herself. Oh, there were some details that changed -- the younger girl’s hair was of a more vibrant color than Nodoka’s own, for example. The red of her hairs was deep and flamboyant, whereas Nodoka’s own was more tinted in brown. She smiled more like her husband than Nodoka’s. She was also shorter in build than Nodoka ever was, and the chest was more developed than hers had been around the same age.

But when putting that against her picture of herself holding baby Ranma, it was easy to see it. For all intents and purposes, that young lady could have passed for Nodoka’s younger sister… or her daughter. Except, Nodoka’s sole sister had looked nothing like her, her own father from whom she had inherited part of her looks had been dead for longer than that young lady might have been alive, and she never had any daughter.

Which was why Genma’s revelations had shocked her to the core, and even now she was fighting down a mix of disbelief, rage, horror, sadness and distress.

Genma said that young girl was his daughter.

She wished, she so dearly wished it was a lie, or that there was a reasonable explanation to why her husband would claim such a thing. She wished, deep down, that perhaps the young redhead was the result of an affair -- after all, her manly husband must have felt lonely on the road, and if he had taken a mistress even once to warm his bed, she couldn’t have hated him, could she? Virile martial artists would be virile martial artists, after all -- or that perhaps he had adopted her, being an honorable man. Or perhaps she was Ranma’s fiancée or even wife, and he referred to her as ‘daughter’ as in ‘daughter-in-law’. Though, no, that wasn’t possible, as Ranma was still too young to marry. Well, he was sixteen, and could be allowed so with permission from his parents, but surely they’d have asked Nodoka first?

But even if it had been Ranma’s wife, it wouldn’t explain why Genma’s ‘daughter’ would have resembled Nodoka so much. Unless Ranma had taken to transvestite himself, but no; asides of the fact it would have been unmanly, the girl’s shirt top buttons were undone, so it was a true girl. That couldn’t be Ranma, of course… but then, why wasn’t there any pictures of the two young people together? Her mind had been trying to wrap itself about the one possible or rather, impossible notion when Genma’s words had chiseled them in stone.

“This is Ranma.”

Nodoka hadn’t fainted. She hadn’t. She may had felt the ground splitting before her, about to swallow her whole, but she hadn’t fainted. She hadn’t even let the Saotome Family Blade outside of its sheath as what Genma said sinked in.

“Ranma is a boy,” she had found herself saying stupidly. “He’s a very manly boy from looks alone. He’s not a girl. I know I gave birth to a boy.”

“I know, Nodoka. Ranma was born and raised a boy. I was here. But something happened, Wife. An awful, unpredictable tragedy. It is a very long tale, however, and I don’t know where to begin. So I’m going to show you something. Look.”

And then there had been a panda sitting across her instead of her manly, sturdy husband.

Thus how the tale from Genma and Ranma’s years wandering on the roads, perfectioning their Art and making themselves a name among Martial Artists, started. Nodoka listened, silent and focused, hearing stories upon stories of how manly her son had been growing up, becoming an excellent martial artist under the training of his Father. She soaked herself into any little fact about Ranma, how courageous he was, how strong, how virile, until her husband reached the fateful trip to China, and how, from lack of understanding the local language and lores, him and their son fell victims to the curses of the training ground of Jusenkyo.

Jusenkyo, at first glance, did seem like a normal place, rich in springs, an ideal place for martial art training in balance on poles sprouting out of the waters. Even if you fell down, the chances you’d hurt yourself would be small, wouldn’t they? But Jusenkyo was far more than it appeared at first. Almost all of the springs were cursed, and anyone falling into them was condemned to take the appearance of the first creature that had drowned itself in their midsts.

The curses, fortunately, could be temporarily reversed through the use of hot water, allowing the victims to take back their first appearance. However, contact with cold water would make them shift back to their cursed form. Genma saw no problem discussing the matter and showing her the proof as he spoke or brandished wooden panels. Nodoka had just watched, face blank and mind reeling in shock, as her husband became an enormous panda.

Then her gaze had dropped to her manly son’s pictures, then to the ones of the lovely looking redhead, and her brain had caught up and stalled at the implication. “Is our son suffering from the same affliction? Is he cursed to become… a girl and come back to his normal, manly body, just with water?” she had whispered, dread pooling in her stomach like an heavy weight. It was… it was unthinkable. Not her son. Not her perfect, manly son that was supposed to bring honor to the Saotome clan and give her many grandchildren!

Her heart skipped a beat as she thought of the contract that she held in security in her room. Genma and Ranma’s promise to commit Seppuku should Ranma fail to become a ‘man among men’, a virile, manly individual. Her son changed into a girl… surely, that’d make him unmanly? But she looked closer at the various pictures sprawled before them, and on closer inspection… it was still her son, wasn’t it?

The girl on the pictures wasn’t very girly, that much was obvious. Dressed in chinese clothes or in a gi, in combat postures, a narrow look of concentration on her face as she seemed ready to jump and fight, she looked like a tomboy at least. That was… that wasn’t really a girl, was it? That looked a lot like a boy… like Ranma was. Yes, she had decided, even in a girl body, her son was a boy, and he was manly. She couldn’t, wouldn’t hold the transformation as a girl against him. At least, not until she saw him herself to assess what her son was like, and what honor commanded.

She had been starting to nod to herself when the other bombshell had dropped.

“How can he be… ‘locked’, Genma? You, obviously, you’re perfectly fine even with that curse hanging over you! But you tell me that my son is just gone, his manly self hidden away under that feminine appearance? How? What happened?”

“Now, Nodoka, I know this is upsetting and… uh, Nodoka? There’s… there’s no need to take out your sword, darling,” the older make sweated, leaning backward.

“I want answers, Husband,” Nodoka threatened, her blade bare, looking crossly at Genma. And she’d better have them soon, else she was going to kill her idiotic husband right away! She could live with and acknowledge that a son who changed into a girl half the time could be manly -- mainly because the change didn’t affect who he was deep down as far as she could judge from pictures and stories. Even half-girl, surely her son could marry and do his duty by providing further heirs to the Saotome clan? To hear he could not… that her boy was now a girl in all but mind… it was too hard to swallow. “What happened to my son, Genma?”

“It was a tragic accident, Nodoka,” Genma blurted out. “Well, an accident… more like a series of contrived coincidences. I have been, sort of, made aware that people cursed by Jusenkyo tend to attract unusual situations that lead to them being splashed by water, cold or hot, at the worst possible moment, but I had never thought it’d end that way for Ranma,” he winced.

Contrived coincidences indeed, Nodoka thought as the abridged tale sprouted out of her husband’s lips.

Apparently, famished, low on supplies, in shock and in need to a temporary safe place to stay, their Guide had taken her son and husband to a local village, that was populated by female warriors/martial artists of the highest caliber. The village itself seemed to be a matriarchal society known as the Chinese Amazons. They tended to be wary or disdainful of outsiders, but they never turned out people in need of help like her son and husband had been. Normally, they should have been able to rest within their walls, and trade for supplies. Sadly, it seemed they had happened by the wrong day.

The very day of their arrival, a competition was going on in the village. A fighting competition. The final match had started and the Guide had been trying to explain what was going on to them while Ranma and Genma were eating. Except, what they had been eating hadn’t been free food for bystanders, but part of the trophy for the competition’s winner. The new champion, a young girl around Ranma’s age, had not been pleased, and quite threatening as she witnessed them gulping down on her prize. Ranma, being the manly boy and martial artist he was, reasoned that if he won the competition, then the prize would belong to him, and so the father and son could finish their dinner. So he had immediately challenged the new champion to a match.

Except, given the champion had been fighting for most of the day, they thought a break was in order before she faced this unexpected challenge. Ranma had readily agreed, wanting a fair fight -- which just proven how nice and manly her son was, in Nodoka’s opinion.

Sadly, it was this ‘break’ that condemned Ranma.

See, a nearsighted boy in the public thought that, after all that fighting, a hot towel to clean herself from the grime and sweat would please the champion, who happened to be his crush -- and wasn’t that sweet of him, to have thought so? So he walked over his mother’s house, where she just had put water to heat. His mother, who was just as nearsighted as him and who, like her son, didn’t often wear her glasses, decided to hand him not just the towel he had come to get, but the whole pot of hot water she had just gone to get at a spring, the village’s well having currently being closed down while they did some repair to the masonry.

That’s when things really, really went wrong. Due to his nearsightedness and his lack of glasses at the time, the poor local boy wandered a bit through the village, and when he managed to get back to the place where the duel was to be held, said duel had already started. And, as he tried to get closer to cheer for his sweetheart, he… tripped.

On what exactly he did trip was unsure, as the ground had been fairly level. Whatever the reason, though, the results were the same. When he tripped, he let go of his handle on the pot of hot, near boiling water. The pot sailed through the air, toward Ranma… who managed to dodge it.

However, the sailing pot had given a sudden idea to the champion girl, who then used one of her weapons to redirect the pot right on Ranma, who was still trying to get his handle back after dodging it a first time. And what had to happen happened; Ranma, caught off guard, didn’t manage to dodge a second time. The pot splashed over him, soaking him from head to toes. For a few seconds, they hadn’t noticed what had happened, as Ranma was too caught up in the fight, and Genma too caught up in watching -- and enjoying a few slices of watermelon.

Then Ranma suddenly realized he had been hit by hot water. He had been hit by hot water, and he hadn’t changed back to his proper body. After checking himself over, he had screamed…

And that’s how Genma finished to give her the great lines of how her son had been doubly cursed to become a woman.

“I don’t understand,” Nodoka said as she listened carefully, letting her blade rest on the table, carefully put back in its sheath, to Genma’s obvious relief.

“We didn’t understand at first either,” the bald martial artist said, closing his eyes briefly. “Hot water should have changed him back, but for some reason it didn’t. Ranma was, you can imagine, very much in shock, to the point he couldn’t continue with the duel. Or rather, noticing something might have been deadly wrong to have Ranma scream like he did, his adversary’s Great-Grandmother stopped the combat short. How shameful it would have been for Ranma to be beaten by a mere girl!” he almost wailed, only to stop and gulp when Nodoka pulled out the katana again.

“I couldn’t care less if he had lost or won at this point, Husband. Why did my son not change back?”

“Did I mention the nearsighted woman and her son? And did I mention the well being worked over?” the elder Saotome sweated. “Well, to get water, the population was going to a nearby spring in the meanwhile. Only that woman? She couldn’t exactly see where she was going, and she walked to Jusenkyo, where she filled her bucket with water. Water, as we realized after the Elders spoke with her, that came from the Spring of the Drowned Girl,” he finished as he pushed back his glasses.

Nodoka put a hand over her mouth as the implications sunk in. “So he was touched by cursed hot water? And… and it cursed him once more?”

“Exactly. Though, if the water had been hotter, it probably wouldn’t have happened. See, the old mummy -- uh, I mean, the revered Elder Cologne, explained to me that Jusenkyo’s waters tended to lost their magic upon reaching their boiling point, making them quite safe to use or drink. Well, mostly, if on short term use. She mentioned something about a particular village and birds, but I didn’t really catch that. Anyway, the Chinese Amazons tended to use the heated waters as a test of sort back in the days, for warriors to prove they were fearless -- I’m not sure I really understood what it was all about. Anyway, boiling Jusenkyo water is harmless, unlike the normal, cold one.”

“But then why… ?”

“The water that hit Ranma wasn’t boiling yet,” Genma grimaced. “As such, it retained its magical properties, or at least enough of them to effectively curse someone splashed. That’s what happened to Ranma. Cursed body or not, it was still something on which the magic of the water could act upon; thus why it cursed Ranma again. Our son is, sadly, ‘locked’ into a female body, for he changes from one cursed from to another, and the change is so fast it could as well not exist.

“Dear Lord,” Nodoka whispered, the Saotome’s Family Blade slipping from her fingers and dropping to the ground with clatters. “My poor, poor son! But, isn’t there a cure? Surely there must?” she asked worriedly.

Genma shuffled uneasily.

“That’s… kinda the tricky part, dear,” he confessed. “Normally, most Jusenkyo curses are curable in a very simple way: by splashing or rather, by submerging yourself in the Spring of the Drowned Girl if you’re a girl, and in the Spring of the Drowned Man if you’re a man.”

Nodoka’s heart jumped in her chest. “So Ranma could just… !”

“No, he can’t,” Genma said simply. “Not without taking big risks. See,” he added quickly as Nodoka pinned him with a good that spoke of nothing good if he didn’t immediately give her a valid reason to refuse this way to cure their son, “Jusenkyo magic works in bizarre, unknown ways. However, the Chinese Amazons’ Elders, as well as some local clans, did researches on the Springs and recorded all they could find on the matter. Among their findings, they noted that people could become twice cursed by Jusenkyo, and even more. But the more cursed you are, the harder it is for you to cure yourself. In fact, bathing in the Springs isn’t so much a cure as a way to change your curse so it match your original body. That’s why you need to be totally immersed in order for it to work, and why a single ladle of water will never be sufficient enough to ‘cure’ you.

“In Ranma’s case,” he said quickly as he felt Nodoka getting more impatient, “it is tricky to use the Spring of Drowned Man, because he already was twice cursed. You see, the more curses befall you, the more chances you have to see your curses… mix,” he said, grimacing. Nodoka looked at him blankly, obviously not understanding, and he coughed. “Nodoka, dear, think of that; mixing a girl curse, and a boy curse… what would be the result for our child?”

Nodoka blinked, then paled deadly as she imagined some kind of… creatures with the breasts of a woman and the intimate parts of a man. “Dear Lord!”

“Exactly,” Genma nodded. “The case happened before, and was recorded by the Chinese Amazons. They were surprisingly frank with us, I must say -- and even if what they said is a lie, I’m not sure I want to risk Ranma’s body integrity by testing out if they’re wrong or not. Not when the results would be permanent.”

“You were wise, Husband, to believe them,” Nodoka said after taking a deep breath. Oh yes, how right; what would have been less unmanly that a mix of boy and girl body, after all? At least, with a full girl body, her son was still… normal. Somewhat. “But there must be other methods to cure cursed people, aren’t there?” she asked desperately.

“It is hard to say,” Genma sighed. “As I said, the Elders were surprisingly honest and helpful with us. I think it was because of one of their local customs regarding male strangers defeating one of their own, and Ranma was on his way for a winning, but what do I know? Anyway, they told me of some of the ways to cure someone. Aside of the Springs, one of the tribes local to Jusenkyo’s area possessed a treasure able to unlock a curse. But that doesn’t concern Ranma, as I have said to you, he’s not so much ‘locked’ in the traditional sense as he is double cursed, his curses forming one single female body that doesn’t shift with water temperature. That treasure wouldn’t work on him. Aside of that… Jusenkyo’s natives came out with way to protect the cursed from the curses befalling them, albeit temporarily. There exist items such as a ‘Waterproof soap’ that stop you from transforming if you come in contact with cold water, but it’s effect is limited in time, barely a day or two, until the protective coat of the soap run out. Effective to a point, the downside is that there aren’t many done each year, as the process is long and time-costly. It’s also very expensive,” he added, thinking back about the price range that had been presented to him. “Once again, it wouldn’t help Ranma, as he is a girl no matter what kind of water touch him. That one method aside… there’s not much, I’m afraid. There’s always the option to order and buy Instant Nannichuan Powder…”

“What is that?”

“A product sold by the local. The powder is made from salt crystals -- apparently, they take buckets from the cursed Springs, salt them and let the water evaporate until only the salt crystals are left, bearing the curse that had been in the water,” Genma explained. “They mix it with various herbs for conservation, and they mail it to who may need it. It is a weak, temporary variant to a curse. You put the powder into cold water and you jump in, and you’ll get back to a man body. Only, as I said, it’s temporary and rather weak -- it will only work once. Not really a cure, more like a spot of hope.”

“And can’t we use it on Ranma?” Nodoka asked worriedly. Even a one-time trick could be useful so she’d get her manly son back to his proper body, right?

“We could, but what’s the point, when people cursed by Jusenkyo are literal water magnets? Just on the way to your house from my friend’s dojo, I’ve been splashed almost ten times,” Genma grunted. “And Instant Jusenkyo Powder can have nasty side effects if used too often. The curse the Powder carry might become permanent, or attach itself to your cursed form,” he rumbled. “Granted, there’s less than 15% of chance of that happening, even with repeated use, but it’s still 15% too much.”

“I fail to see… Oh!” Nodoka whispered, catching on. Of course. The curse might become permanent OR attach itself to one’s cursed form. So there was also a big chance it’d merge with Ranma’s actual curse and change him into a half-male, half-female creature. The housewife felt her shoulders sag. Not a cure at all, then. Barely a mirage, and a possibly harmful one at that. “Oh, Genma… what should we do? What should I do? Ranma is… the contract…” she whimpered.

Genma gulped and shuffled uneasily, but Nodoka paid it no mind, thinking back once more to the precious piece of paper she had conserved safely for years, marked with the thumbprint of Genma and Ranma’s small child hand.

For years, she had clung to that contract madly. She had accepted to let Ranma go because her husband had promised he’d see their son raised right, a virile, manly son from whom she could be proud. She trusted Genma to do so; after all, her husband was a virile man, was he not? Even if he was sometimes… morally dubious, he was indeed manly. But perhaps because she knew how unreliable Genma could be at time, she had also trained herself all those years, perfecting her motions to help her husband and son finish the Seppuku ceremony should she need to.

From all account, her son was manly. But could she still say she had a son, when said son was now a girl, thank to the magic of a vicious curse?

Oh, it was giving her a headache!

Honor wanted her to prepare for the ceremony, because having been changed into a girl was a breach of the contract they had passed when Ranma was a toddler, and Genma and Ranma had to commit Seppuku less the honor of the Saotome clan was tarnished further.

On the other hand, she… she wanted to see her child, and accept him no matter what he was -- even if she still wanted him to be a manly boy and bring honor to the family and make her a grandmother several times. She wasn’t prepared to have… to have a daughter? Because, the way Genma was presenting things, then she had a son no more, but instead a very tomboyish and unlady-like daughter. Dear Lord, she wasn’t… wasn’t prepared to deal with that!

At this very moment, Nodoka was at a loss, unable to decide on what the right thing was. Thus it was why Genma, in his infinite wisdom, chose that moment to launch what he hoped would be a successful assault on his wife’s waning defenses. He needed her to agree to the plan, and quickly; he had no desire to commit Seppuku, after all!

“I raised Ranma to the best of my abilities, Wife, and for all intents and purposes, he was as I had promised you: a virile boy, perfectly manly. Sadly, given the circumstances… It is as if our manly son had died,” he said with as much serious and gravity as he could. He almost smiled in triumph as he saw his wife recoil, as if physically struck.

“Died? But our son is… “

“Ranma may live, Wife, but what life is it for a boy who now has a girl body? A perfectly functional girl’s body, if the records and a few… physical examinations he underwent,” he coughed, glossing over a few facts. That made Nodoka twitch, hard, so he didn’t press the matter, preferring to continue his rousing speech. “Given how little hope there is that our son will indeed regain a male body, Nodoka, I think we now need to fully consider his future. Or rather, HER future, as our daughter.”

“His future… as our daughter?” Nodoka repeated feebly. “Ranma isn’t…” Except… He now was, wasn’t he… wasn’t she?

“Hear me out, Nodoka. Ranma, as manly as he is in soul, will never have the opportunity to be manly in body against, unless a miracle happen. This is why we must now decide what path our child should follow, for we both love him… her… and wish Ranma well,” he said, pushing back his glasses. “We could wait for that miracle, of course, but if it never happens… It would be a waste of his abilities, and a waste of the future of the Saotome clan, to which Ranma is instrumental.”

Nodoka nodded along. She had wanted Ranma to be a virile man in order to make the clan grow larger and restore their pride. But if it wasn’t an option, then what could they…? She blinked, looking at her husband with narrowed eyes. Surely he wasn’t insinuating that… ?

“Are you suggesting, Husband, that we marry Ranma off… as a girl?”

Genma winced a bit at the tone his wife took, but held his ground. “Please, Nodoka. I know this is hard to hear, but consider the idea. Surely, you would want your child, be it a boy or a girl, to be married and happy in life? And what of the family’s honor? Have you thought of it?”

Nodoka perked up. “The family’s honor?”

There was the moment of truth, Genma decided. “As you may remember, Ranma was promised since before birth to marry in the family of my old training partner, Soun Tendo, and to one day inherit the Tendo Dojo in Tokyo, thus uniting both schools of the Anything Goes Martial Arts.”

“Ah…” Yes, yes, she did remember now, Nodoka realized briefly. That had been so long ago, but she did remember Genma telling her about it, as he was going over to sign a contract of engagement to officialize the matter. A sensitive precaution, asked by the other family. Heavily pregnant with Ranma at the time, Nodoka had nodded along, glad that her future child’s future would be set no matter what, and she had actually thanked Genma to have been such a farsighted husband.

An official engagement, on Ranma’s behalf, and on which depended the family’s honor. Oh Lord, how were they going to get out of this without losing face?! If Ranma had a fiancée, then… But, wait; that contract had been written before Ranma’s actual birth, hadn’t it? Which meant there had been no way to be sure Genma and Nodoka would have a son. Just like there was no guarantee the other family would have a girl, wasn’t it? So, basically, it mattered little who presented a son and who presented a daughter so long a couple was wed, right? 

“I see,” she muttered. “So, did your friend has a son that would be willing to… marry our… daughter?” she asked carefully.

Genma winced. Here came the hardest part. “Well… not exactly,” he explained carefully, trying not to stare at the katana on the table between them. “You see, my friend Soun Tendo has three daughters… “ Nodoka faltered slightly. So there was no way to honor the contract anymore? “... However, you see, Soun is a widower, and the future of his school matters a lot to him, as well as honor…”

Nodoka blinked. Surely, she had misheard… ? But no, she realized. Genma was absolutely serious, looking at her with due gravity but also the slightest hint of nervousness, probably fearing her answer. How right he was to! That was… that was ludicrous! Wed her son to another male was already pushing it, considering she still thought of Ranma as her son -- and would certainly continue so until she actually met her child and assessed his character by herself -- but to marry him off to a man who was most likely old enough to be his father?

She was raising her hand to grab the Family’s Blade when Genma’s own hand was put over her own, pinning hers to the table.

“Please, Nodoka, hear me out! This is not an easy decision to take, I know! It wasn’t easy to me neither, but I beg you, as your husband, to hear my reasoning.” Nodoka stalled, and looked at her husband for a moment in silence.

“Very well, Husband. Do tell me why you think such an union would be… acceptable.”

Genma coughed. “Well, boy or girl, Ranma is clearly quite the martial artist. I’ve raised him… her… to be that way, after all. Our child wouldn’t settle well with just anyone, so it’s clear to me that the best match for him is someone who is taking the Arts as seriously as he does. I think you can agree to that?” Nodoka nodded reluctantly. Of course, in a family of martial artists, you tended to favor a spouse coming from a similar background. Her own family… but it wasn’t the moment to reminisce, was it? “Secondly,” Genma continued, “we must consider Ranma’s future in term of wealth; it wouldn’t do to marry our child to someone who doesn’t have a steady income or a way to subsist to our child’s needs -- and those of a family at large. Soun Tendo owns a Dojo, and he’s a teacher -- even if, I admit, he’s out of practice since the death of his late wife, which took a lot out of him. I tell you that to show you that Soun is also a caring man,” Genma added quickly. “He’s very understanding and protective of his family, so we could be certain Ranma is well cared for.”

“But, back to the Dojo. It had always been my… Ranma’s hope that someday our child be able to become a teacher. By marrying Soun, Ranma could become so at the Tendo Dojo without any problem. Original plans were for him to take over, but…” he shrugged. “Perhaps Ranma’s children will, one day,” he added slyly, trying to seduce Nodoka with the idea. He knew where to push; Nodoka had never made a secret of the fact she wanted to be surrounded by a large family. She herself had suffered from a difficult birth that had robbed her from the possibility to have more children, at least not without endangering her own life in the process, so she had started early on to fantasy about Ranma’s future progeny. That their son-turned-daughter would be the mother instead of the father was anecdotic at best if he played his wife right. “After all,” he added once again without trying to look overly concerned, “Soun has three daughters already, which means he’s quite manly; I was lead to believe he still is…”

Nodoka made a humming sound, thoughtful. Yes… three children already wasn’t bad, it was even promising, if she ever wanted grandchildren… and assuming her… daughter… was actually able to bear children. Genma seemed convinced it was so, but Nodoka wasn’t so sure. Though, if she took Ranma to her gynecologist, she’d have a confirmation?

… She couldn’t believe she had just thought that! Ranma wasn’t supposed… ! But then again, a lot of things weren’t supposed to be going a certain way, and they did anyway.

Closing her eyes, she tried to resume things over in her head. Ranma, her son, was now a girl. It was shameful and technically a breach of the contract, but the contract had been vague enough and her son had been quite manly from what she could pierce together. She could, perhaps, acknowledge that the contract had been fulfilled and was now void. At the same time, it was like acknowledging her son had… ‘died’ in body, remade into her daughter instead. And now, as a caring mother, she needed to think of the future of said daughter.

Marriage, for a daughter, was the ideal. But Ranma was… Ranma was raised a boy, so thinking of him married as a girl felt so very strange and so very wrong! Still, it needed to be done to honor a contract between the Saotomes and the Tendos, for both families’ honor and prosperity. She didn’t know that Soun Tendo at all, so she couldn’t give an honest judgement yet, but… a house, a steady mean of income, a family Dojo, three daughters and the possibility to have more children with Ranma… Those were all good points to consider. Add to that, he seemed like an honorable man from Genma’s account, and as a martial artist, he might be very manly -- which was very important to Nodoka; a manly son-in-law to give her many grandchildren was just as important.

But still…

“I can’t give you an honest answer just like that, Husband,” she finally said, opening her eyes. “This is far too sudden. You’re asking me to take too much things in at once. And I can’t honestly give you an answer without having first met that… potential fiancé for our… daughter.”

Genma nodded gravely, hiding his relief. If she was considering the idea, then it meant that he had won already, no matter what she may have been thinking right now. “I understand,” he said simply. “As such, I have asked my friend Soun to come over in about one hour, so we could discuss together.”

Nodoka blinked. “One hour? Oh my, it barely leaves me enough time to make tea and perhaps some biscuits,” she said as she rose to her feet suddenly, almost knocking the table and the sword still on it over. “Do you know what he likes? Should I make green tea? Oolong, perhaps? Oh, and what would be most appropriate, salted biscuits or a Castella? Unless I make mochi… or dango? I just have the right ingredients for mochi, but…”

Genma just nodded as she spoke, fighting down a smile.

Hook, link and, once Soun was here and they spoke, he was sure he’d have the sinker part down as well.

Still, in his mind, he danced with joy; no more Seppuku for him from now on!


End file.
